Christmas shopping saw me in John Lewis last week. I was after a toy tractor for my little Milla (now 2 years and 5 months old).  I was disappointed not to find a wooden one so I got the plastic one probably made in China. However, it was not so much this minor ethical dilemma that got me thinking. On the journey home I pondered why tractors seem so benign? I wouldn’t dream of buying her anything as vulgar as monster truck or toy gun. Why are tractors deemed so harmless? They are machines that consume diesel. On the face of it they are no more sustainable than the motorcar. However, unlike personal transport the tractor is a beast of burden like the ambulance and bus. No one gets in one for fun. This is work. The work of feeding people. Even organic farms use tractors. Cuba uses tractors. A tractor won’t harm you but it could feed you. However there is more to it than this.

Nobody gets angry at tractors. Unlike Nuclear Power Stations or Televisions. However these are all inanimate objects. Why do we pick and choose? Why do we so disassociate ourselves from our own folly? Parents blame Television for their children’s behaviour – but not themselves. We blame radioactivity for illness but never Nuclear Scientists. You could argue that a tractor is a horrible invention of the so called “green revolution” no more benign than agrochemicals or Monsanto. They tear up the land doing the job that unemployed people and chickens can do better.

Yet still I am happy with my tractor. Of all the things in Milla’s toy box it is the one thing, next to the toy horseys, that most connect us with farming, agriculture and the land. That seems very important for our children. They (and we) remain so disconnected from that which feeds us. This is a problem. When Milla grows up it may be that the only transport she has is a horse or a bicycle. The only internal combustion engine she will ever hear maybe the put-put of a little tractor powered by biodiesel. One just like her grandfather used to drive. Maybe, if she is really lucky she will hop on her grandfather’s knee as her drives her around on a little tractor. I would be so proud.

So I decided to take the side of the tractor in this propaganda war. Why not a Coal Fuelled Power Station? Simply because of size. The electronic box of tricks called a television is harmless. It can bring the wonders of this world to my daughter’s eyes without her needing to travel. The problems start with what gets shown between these programs. Advertising by large toy corporations, shown on channels by large media corporations, driving demand for stuff she will never need. (Since she never sees adverts for children’s toys we have no tantrums when we take her around a toy store. She picks up toys, looks at them and puts them down. No problems. Try it!)

So size matters. One man on a tractor can do very little damage and can demonstrate ‘good’ very clearly. Billions of dollars of undemocratic, faceless, economic machinery removes us from the harm of our own stupidity.

Hence small community wind turbines are good. The community is involved in its selection and erection. They are engaged. A large offshore wind farm MIGHT be good but the jury should remain out until we demonstrate that we haven’t just passed our problems on to marine ecology. Hence we have to care. Clearly large fossil fuel power stations are bad. The very reason we make them so big, so far away and so inefficient is so that we don’t have to care. No one wants their nose rubbing in it. One car is a museum piece or a test-bed. A billion cars is a crime. This is why small, slow and local is good. It is the replacement paradigm. Anything ‘large’ has its sell by date now. It may seem like turning the clock back but this is the future. At the small scale I can reconnect my children with the soil. It matters not whether technology is involved or not. It is our connection to the source that is important. Big scale means separation. It is not the technology of the internet or mobile phone that is “good” or “bad” – it is the connections we make that dictate ethics. It is US and what we do. We can use the technology as a barrier between us and the real world. Or we can choose to use it to connect with nature. We choose unwisely. This is not the fault of technology.

So, let’s hear it for the tractor. Get yer boots dirty.